By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. What are social groups? Their metaphysics and how to classify them
Brian Epstein, Synthese, 2017/04/20
At a webinar yesterday we had some fun with different terms for groups of people (herds, swarms, flocks...) and this let to a but of a discussion of the considerations behind the naming of different types of groups (and objects). Here's a longish paper (49 page PDF) that thoroughly explores this sort of question. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Maplesoft Releases Online Courseware Environment for STEM
Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology, 2017/04/20
According to this report, "Maplesoft today released Möbius, a hands-on learning tool focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics education." Yes, it's Canadian, sort of (subsidiary of a Japanese company). More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Coursera Removes Biometric Identity Verification Using Keystroke Matching
Dhawal Shah, Class Central, 2017/03/21
This is a bit of a puzzle. Over time, Coursera has focused on authenticating users and (thereby) offering 'validated' certificates. But the news now is that it is shutting this down. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Lessons from Chicago: How to Hook Up Every Teen with a Tech Job
Jen Curtis, EdSurge, 2017/03/21
A long time ago I offered my own version of 'School 2.0' in which placement in the community was a core concept (that's it, pictured in the image). The current article describes an instantiation of that sort of vision. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Google Scholar is a serious alternative to Web of Science
Anne-Wil Harzing, LSE Impact Blog, 2017/03/21
I agree with this assessment. "Commercial databases such as ISI and Scopus have systematic errors as they do not include many journals in the social sciences and humanities, nor have good coverage of conferences proceedings, books or book chapters." They are, in a word, biased toward traditional scientific publications. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A Change Sprint – workshopping new ideas in a hurry
Dave Cormier, Dave's Educational Blog, 2017/03/21
There are two interesting things in this post. The first is the description of the 'change sprint' that is the focus of the post as a whole. It's a method for getting input from other people when you can't just open up ideas to the whole internet. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Blockchain Revolution and Higher Education
Don Tapscott, Alex Tapscott, EDUCAUSE Review, 2017/03/21
This is an overview article of the potential of the blockchain in higher education. We've covered the blockchain in OLDaily before. In a nutshell: a transaction (contract, credential, whatever) is encrypted in a block, and the block is added to a chain of encryptions. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Peers, more than teachers, motivate us to learn
Andy Henion-Michigan State, Futurity, 2017/03/21
Interesting summary of a publication (I can read it here but it might be blocked where you are) suggesting, as the title says, that peers motivate us more than teachers. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Virtual Reality: The next big storytelling medium?
Stephanie Chan, Cisco | The Network, 2017/03/21
Would I pay money to see a movie in virtual reality (VR)? Oh my yes I would. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Eliminativism and the Neuroscience of Consciousness
Richard Brown, 2017/03/21
The idea of 'eliminativism' is that our common-sense psychological concepts such as 'beliefs', 'desires', etc., don't actually exist. This has important implications for education, since pretty much all of educational theory depends on these concepts. I am an eliminativst philosophically. More...
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